Checkatrade Trophy Vote

Shrewsbury Town have announced their voting intentions for the future of the Checkatrade Trophy.

All clubs were given a chance to vote on whether the competition stayed the same, returned to the old format or was scrapped altogether.

Last season’s competition didn’t work out well for Town as they were put in the same group as Middlesbrough Under-21s, Scunthorpe and Cambridge United.

With that in mind, CEO Brian Caldwell confirmed that Shrewsbury Town had voted to return to the 48 team competition next season.

“We put our decision in on Monday”, said Brian.

“We’ve voted to go back to the 48 teams and remain as it was prior to this season. There was a bit of questioning over finances and how the distribution would work, but we’ve voted for the original status quo.

“We were obviously hit quite hard last year in terms of going to Middlesbrough on a mid-week night in what was supposedly meant to be a regionalised competition.

“I think the way it was handled last year wasn’t great if I’m honest. I think people got mixed up between the Whole Game Solution and why we didn’t introduce Academy teams into the Football League.

“Then a lot of the top Academy teams pulled out and our belief is that we should go back to the way it was before and just have the Checkatrade as League One and League Two clubs only.”